Great article from The Writer and great news for indie authors!

Today, a six-figure income – or at least a full-time writing career – is actually a possibility for independent authors.By Patrick Walsh | Published: August 18, 2016

Can self-publishing really become a lucrative full-time endeavor? Can indie authors ever begin to rival the income of traditionally published authors? A “yes” to either of these questions seemed but fable a few years ago. But today, a six-figure income – or at least a full-time writing career – is actually a possibility for independent authors.

Recently, an “Ask Me Anything” Q&A on Reddit caught my attention. It was hosted by independent author Chris Fox. Fox has been very successful in his career – so much so that he claimed to have earned $65,000 off his self-published books in 2015, and hopes to triple that in 2016 (meaning a six-figure income based on his eBook sales alone). In fact, he recently quit a six-figure salary in the software industry to write full-time. For a few hours, he answered a variety of questions from fellow writers and aspiring authors. (See the full Q&A here.) So I wondered: Is Fox an anomaly, or is this a rising trend?

AuthorEarnings.com has published a report on this very subject, so I jumped into the data. Their May 2016 report reports 1340 authors earn over $100,000 per year on Amazon.com. The striking fact here: “Half of them are indies and Amazon-imprint authors.”

Surely this is just for eBook sales, right? Brick-and-mortar print sales from the Big Five will most certainly bridge the gap and make up the loss in sales. Not true, Author Earnings finds.

“The author earnings gap between publishing paths is so wide among these six-figure-earning authors that once again brick-and-mortar print sales and the like cannot significantly alter the picture,” the report says.

Interestingly, Big Five-published authors make up a significant portion of the 100k-earners if they’ve debuted within the last 100 years. But if you narrow the timeline to those who’ve debuted within the last decade, indie authors make up an overwhelming amount of the big earners – see the figures here. The amount of high-earning, traditionally-published debuts dwindles as we get closer and closer to the present day.

This trend is also true for authors earning over $250,000 per year and over $500,000 per year. The data shows it: Independent authors are threatening the traditional model. It’s certainly an exciting time to be an independent author.

A bit about how these figures were discovered: Author Earnings use a software spider that crawls across Amazon’s bestseller lists, links to also-bought recommendations and through each authors’ full catalog. This resulted in a million-title dataset. You can download the raw data used to compile the statistics on Authorearnings.com.

Patrick Walsh is a serial entrepreneur and the owner of PublishingPush.com, which specialises in PR and book marketing.

This will be available in paperback as well. Here is the back cover verbiage:

“A bittersweet story of young love, independence, and soul-crushing manipulation. J.A. Owenby shines a light on the impact that mental illness can have on a family.” —Dr. Sheri Kaye Hoff, PhD, Professional Life Coach

Mama didn’t want me.In fact, she would’ve traded my soul back for someone different if God would’ve let her, but he didn’t, so she was stuck with me.

For eighteen-year-old Lacey, life at home is a rollercoaster. She doesn’t think she’ll ever be good enough to truly deserve Mama’s love.

But when Lacey enters college and meets Walker, everything starts to change. Suddenly, Lacey is face to face with the realization that maybe what she’s always seen as normal really isn’t. Her entire life—and everything she’s ever believed about herself and her family—is abruptly hanging in midair.

Lacey is left facing two paths, and she has to make a choice. The first means walking away from everything she’s ever known. The other means never really knowing the truth.

The Truth She Knew offers an honest and powerful glimpse into mental illness, the meaning of true love, and the psychological waltz that a daughter dances as she endures her mother’s unpredictable emotions, manipulation, and abuse.

If you’re interested in upcoming giveaways including gift cards and signed copies please follow my page at https://www.facebook.com/JAOwenby/.

Thank you all for your amazing support through this journey. The Truth She Knew will be available for pre-order soon.

I think plot vs. character has just as many opinions as outlining vs. pantsing. I’ve read great books that were plot driven with light character development and good books with fantastic characters and a flimsy plot. But, since writing two novels and part of my third I’ve found that the amazing books, the ones that stay with you years later, have both elements. They contain a page-turning plot and deep characters. When I say deep characters I mean human beings with internal and external challenges and emotions that readers can identify with.

So, instead of there being a debate about which should be stronger, I say knock it out of the ballpark and bring both to your story.

Anyone who has followed my blog knows I’m a firm believer in supporting good writing. Victoria and I have followed each other’s blog for quite a long time now, and she has released her 2nd novel which looks really good!

With multiple 5-star reviews don’t miss “The Sin of His Father” It’s now free on Kindle this weekend only! That’s September 12th-14th. On the right side of the page, you will see the Kindle version free. Grab it before it’s too late! http://tinyurl.com/oxmdtqv

“Your father didn’t leave us, Mattie. I was raped.”These words, uttered by his mother on her deathbed, propelled Matt Maxwell into the fear that he could become like this man he never knew.Abandoning the woman he loved, his closest friend, and a lifestyle that suited him well, Matt made…

AMAZON.COM

I’m off to download my copy now. And, as we are all writers that work tremendously hard and understand what it truly takes to put a novel together, please leave her a review.

I’m very happy to announce that my newest short story is available on Amazon! I was also really excited that Blurred Lines sold copies the same day she became available.

Here’s what I’d like to do for the next week (November 12-19th) if you purchase a copy of Blurred Lines, leave a review and email me your purchase receipt I’ll enter you into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. And, with the holidays approaching it will be fun for you or help during your holiday shopping. The winner will be announced on Friday the 21st. Email me at jenowenby@live.com

Lexi is used to a difficult life, bouncing around from foster home to foster home, but all that changes when she meets her best friend, Olivia. Lexi has finally found a family.
Three years have passed, and Lexi is beginning to think the dark secret she left behind might stay buried. Then Olivia begins dating the high school bad ass and everything takes a wrong turn.
Life has suddenly blurred the line of what is acceptable and what isn’t as Lexi struggles with if she should step in to protect her friend. There’s more than just friendship at risk; she fears her secret will come to the surface. What will she do?

Larry Brooks, I love him. He’s straight forward and to the point. He teaches story structure that makes sense. He’s also a published author of five critically acclaimed thrillers, several eBooks, and “Story Engineering” published by Writer’s Digest.

Larry breaks novel-writing into pieces. They’re referred to as the 6 core competencies. These 6 consist of concept, character, theme, story architecture, scene construction and writing voice. He also explains the first plot point, mid-point, plot point 2, and both pinch points, and where they should occur in your story.

His delivery is clear and concise, and he was the first that made the puzzle pieces begin to fit together for me.